I’m a big fan of Youtube show VHS Revue and urge you all to have a look, it’s written and fronted by David M Green who long term readers might remember as the host of punching-well-above-its-weight local access comedy quiz 31 Questions over a decade ago, since then he’s done a lot of writing for proper TV shows with and for Shaun Micallef and the like and yet this might be his magnum opus – ostenably a show that looks at old adverts on old video tapes and comically analyses them, but there’s usually a bit of broadcasting industry context around the shows the adverts came from. Anyway he’s gone big into 90s Aussie gameshows here.

I know what you’re thinking “hey, I’m a big fan of Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce, and I’m a big fan of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader/10 Year Old, is there any way I can watch Amazon Prime’s new series Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity in the UK?”

Well yes you can! It’s on UK Prime right now, three episodes now and one every Wednesday hereafter. The interesting question is will we be getting the entirety of Amazon’s new Wednesday ‘game show block’ going forward, including Wish List Games, Buy It Now and (probably the one of most interest to most of you) Pop Culture Jeopardy! going forward to which the answer is “I don’t know!” I wonder if Jeopardy! airing in the UK now might make the rights to that a bit more challenging here. We’ll find out in due course.

AYSTAC (so close to “haystack”) gives people the chance to win $100,000 – and an Amazon gift prize! – to people who can answer 11 questions in various school categories and at various grade levels. The main difference between this and the original is that whilst the original had a class of kids to help the contestants out, here we have five celebrities, with their own strengths and weaknesses, in the same role. Only a couple of changes to the traditional rules – one of the cheats has been replaced by the “pop quiz” – if the contestant isn’t sure of a question they can throw it out and have it replaced by a pop culture question which the entire class can help with. The other change being that if they go for the final 6th Grade question for the jackpot they’re allowed to get help from one of the celebs.

The money ladder isn’t very good, or at least isn’t very interesting. The first 10 questions go from $1,000 to $50,000 with a guarantee point at $15k after Q5, after that it goes $20k, $25k, $30k, $35k, $50k and then the final $100k, but really whilst you can bail at any time, realistically the final two jumps are the only places where it feels like there’s any real decision to be made. It means you’re pretty much guaranteed a 40-45 minute show with between 9 and 11 questions in it, but at no point does that really threaten to become exciting. Kelce is surprisingly OK at hosting, they keep the mistakes in where he makes a joke about it, he’s evidently not short of confidence and the first ep suggests he can think on his feet. Although probably should be told to keep his hands out of his pockets. Why Travis Kelce is asking a bunch of celebrities questions for 6-10 years olds is not adequately explained.

The first ep is basically a harmless way to pass 45 minutes, and that’s the problem really, unless Prime are splashing this all over the front page I can’t see people actively going out and searching for it – you’ve got to really want it. The only one I think has a chance will be Pop Culture Jeopardy purely out of inertia. Annoyingly Prime don’t really give figures out and I can’t see it troubling BARB so we’ll only be able to rely on hearsay (and if it gets recomissioned) to find out if it was worth doing or not.

I’m not sure how much content they’ll actually be across the next two years but it would be remiss not to have a web presence whilst Genius Game is going out and I do need to be able to say “well, I told you so” when Destination X launches, so I have renewed my package (missus), I had thought about jacking it all in earlier in the year but it turns out I don’t think I’m quite ready to retire just yet, even though literally no new shows are being made ever right now. I reserve the right to disappear in two years time and make a Stefan Raab-style comeback a decade later.

Edit: Basically expect blog content as and when I think it’s worth writing going forward, not unlike how it is currently sometimes with a week plus between posts. You’ve got TV Zone or whatever for news, and our Discord is where lots of the good up-to-the-minute discussion is. I am still on Twitter for now, but when that’s done I’m not joining Bluesky or whatever.

To celebrate here are some old shows! We will never ever ever say no to the possibility of Fred Dinenage (and Michelle Lambourne, to give her her very much overdue due) Gambit and it looks like two episodes have made themselves to Youtube recently (although thinking about it, I think that second one may have been flying about previously, but there is just so much Dinenage just saying the first thing that pops into his head in it and Peter Fenn’s organ playing I will never ever tire of watching it). I maintain Challenge are missing a trick not buying this up if the tapes still exist. Both apparently from 1981, but different series.

However I’ve recently got a new obsession and that it’s almost offensively 1980s Canadian quiz Guess What, a simple and fun enough multiple choice quiz premise hosted by actor Robin Ward who also does a line in “comments” except the Dinenage-style pointed comments come across quite aggressively rather than cheekily and really don’t sort of land very well half the time and I sort of can’t stop watching.

The Sun reporting that Rob Brydon’s the one lined up to host Destination X which starts filming next week.

It’s a really interesting choice. I’m sure he’ll deliver amusing bon mots via video message to the bus passengers well, but can you see him as a Man of Rules? More challenging. I like it more as an idea than when Joel Dommett got revealed as the Survivor host though. And I don’t think anyone expected Claudia Winkleman to boss The Traitors as she has.

The show’s main problem I found is that it’s just more annoying than compelling, and outside of its original Flemish broadcast has had the distinctive whiff of non-hit, although it has been recommissioned in France much to the surprise of just about everybody. You can read our thoughts on the original here. the TL;DR version is that The Making Of feels more entertaining than the show itself.

TV Zone reporting Bullseye returning with Freddie Flintoff at the helm with a one-off Christmas special, but they’re never really one-off specials are they? I kind of wish they’d just leave it alone, it’s cult status derived almost entirely from its original point in history and people involved.

But let’s go wild, darts is extremely popular, why shouldn’t it work as a show on its own merits in 2024? Whenever they’ve bought it back for Gameshow Marathon or Epic Gameshow (and, indeed Challenge TV with Dave Spikey) they’ve stuck pretty rigidly to the points and prize structures of the 1980s (although see Daniel Hurst in the comments). As a game played for points, Bullseye ‘works’ fine. Are people really going to be excited by people answering a question for about £34 in 2024 for a show standing on its own merits? It feels unlikely.

Everyone is going “but look… Luke Littler!” and yes, Luke Littler. But unless they’ve changed the format so it’s a quizzing celebrity paired up with a famous darts player Big Break style, he’ll only be on for two minutes throwing for charity (possibly winning a whopping £600+), and then so what really? But what if they do change the format up so it’s a quizzer and a professional? Well that’s already been done when it was used for Gameshow Marathon, and the professionals just hit the Bullseye all the time anyway so it wasn’t actually that much fun. Anyway, Sky’s One Hundred and Eighty was a perfectly serviceable quiz darts format that did exactly this, and was also hosted by Flintoff anyway.

How are you going to get an hour out of it? Epic Gameshow played round one twice and had an endgame that lasted 15-20 minutes. Fine, but it never hit the same as 101 or more in six darts, let’s have a look at what you could have won, did it?

Basically you’d need to change everything to make it worthwhile in 2024, and if you’ve changed everything then you’ve just got a new show but with a cartoon bull that can wander across the screen occasionally. Is that what people want? I guess we’ll be finding out soon enough. Besides, it should be Peter Kay for Bullseye, Freddie Flintoff ought to be rebooting The Indoor League.

“They” should just do a Bullseye FAST Channel, but that’d probably sink Challenge, so.

Edit: Apply if you want.

Deadline reporting that the TV arm of Pinewood Studios will be shutting down end of 2025 as basically not enough telly being made so things like Taskmaster and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (and also Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars it says here, but I think it’s a bit late for that) will need to find new homes. Their film studios will still be making things. On the one hand, it’s a sad indictment on the state of TV industry and we hope that those with jobs affected will get work with Pinewood’s more profitable side.

On the other hand as an audience member Pinewood is an absolute pain in the arse to get to. So here is my OFFICIAL ranking of my favourite TV studios as someone who has to get the train from Cambridge and is too cheap/working class to get a taxi.

1. The Elstrees – I’m plonking them both together here, Elstree Film and TV Studios and BBC Elstree are literally 400 yards away from each other and the experience has been pretty similar all told in both places. One has the Eastenders set. One let you marvel at the Big Brother house which really did back onto to a big Tescos, and as well as the light entertainment that drips from all pores, in the 15 minute walk from Elstree and Borehamwood train station (itself just a twenty minute ride from St Pancras) there’s a Nandos! A Big Tesco! A McDonalds! A pub! And a Wimpy! Whether you want a Bender-In-A-Bun or a quick toilet stop, A visit to Elstree and Borehamwood has you covered. Also both have audience foyers. Handy when it’s cold!
2. Television Centre – although this would have been number one back in the day. Still fun to go and see recordings there, being literally opposite Wood Lane station is a big “yes”, and Shepherd’s Bush being 100 yards down the road a big plus. Also a Westfield, but last time I went the Burger King had shut up shop which was annoying. You can wander into the doughnut and “pretend you’ve gone behind the scenes of Top Gear (if they were still making it)”. One of the all time best Audience Foyers when it was proper BBC, these days you just have to stand in the rain.
3. ITV Towers When It Still Existed (aka The London Studios) – Very much feeling like The Home Of Light Entertainment, ten minutes walk from Waterloo Station but you do have to go through a large tunnel complex past an IMAX to get to Upper Ground, which does run the risk of running into buskers. No foyer, lots of lining up against walls. Lots of pictures of people from GMTV and the like on the walls. Much missed.
4. Wembley Studios When It Still Existed (aka The Fountain Studios) – This looks fascinatingly unassuming from the outside on the road but it was pretty massive inside – if you had to go in the back entrance a bit of a different matter. Huge amount of stairs to get back to Wembley station. Nearby McDonalds.
5. Riverside Studios before they remade it – out in Hammersmith. I don’t think I’ve been back since they did it up again, I saw Two Tribes with the popular Richard Osman being filmed there before it shut. Don’t remember much about it in honesty but did have a foyer/bar area, the walk from the local tube station is much more “city” than the other ones.
6. Wimbledon Studios Which May Or May Not Still Be A Going Concern, Don’t Know – Only saw one thing here, an episode of Celebrity Tipping Point where I sat next to Ben Shephard’s delightful mum. Unfortunately I apparently booked my train ticket for the wrong day and had to pay for another PEAK one from the inspector when I got down there. I remember it being a bit of a trek from Wimbledon station but not too bad. Anyway, I don’t know if it’s still a going concern, what is fun is that it’s literally the Sun Hill Police Station set from The Bill which was still dressed as the Sun Hill Police Station Set from The Bill, right down to the vending machine offering 20p cans of Coke but which turned out to be a prop.
7. Vinter’s Park, Maidstone – A bit of a hassle to get there from Maidstone Station, about 40 minutes walk if I remember correctly, but as someone who grew up in TVS land will always have a special place in my heart. Don’t think I’ve been here since the first reboot of Dale’s Supermarket Sweep, mind.
8. Shepperton Studios – I saw the pilot of Goldenballs here. It was about 50 minute walk from the train station. It rained.
9. Salford, Glasgow, Bristol etc – Sorry, I’m sure these places are modern and lovely but I’m unwilling to pay £250 for train tickets and a hotel and two days of leave just to watch an underwhelming quiz. London I can get down and back in an evening.
10. Pinewood Studios – an hour’s walk along main roads from Uxbridge station, which is already the end of the line. Your show will inevitably overrun, as big scale shows are wont to do, so it’s not much fun making the trip in the dark. Website suggested there’s a bespoke bus service but I’ve never seen it running so presume it’s been made up. If you film at Pinewood you’ve probably also used serial ticket overbookers Applause Store so will I will have thought less of you.
11. Shinfield Studios – yeah naaaaah.

What’s your favourite TV studio? Let us know in the comments!